SINGAPORE, May 8 (Reuters) - Singapore palm oil firm Wilmar International Ltd reported a 23 percent rise in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, largely due to a recovery in its oilseeds and grains segment. The company also said the bird flu outbreak in China will affect meal consumption in the short term but it remains optimistic about the long-term prospects of the country. Wilmar posted net profit of $315.4 million for the three months ended...

By Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) - MacDon Industries Ltd, one of North America's largest manufacturers of windrowers, is looking for a buyer in a deal that could fetch around $1 billion, four people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The Canadian family-owned company, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, makes machinery used to harvest various agricultural products such as cereal grains, oilseeds, rice and soybeans. MacDon...

SINGAPORE, May 8 (Reuters) - Singapore palm oil firm Wilmar International Ltd reported a 23 percent rise in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, largely due to a recovery in its oilseeds and grains segment. The company also said the bird flu outbreak in China will affect meal consumption in the short term but it remains optimistic about the long-term prospects of the country. Wilmar posted net profit of $315.4 million for the three months ended...

No settlement: The European Community's executive commission said Thursday it had rejected a U.S. demand for a binding panel to settle a trade dispute over oilseeds. "We agreed to disagree," said a spokesman for the commission. At issue is a dispute before the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade over EC subsidies to its oilseeds producers. The EC has agreed to compensate foreign exporters harmed by its subsidies and offered the United States and nine other oilseeds exporters...

Archer Daniels Midland Co. reported higher quarterly profit on Tuesday as strong demand for oilseeds helped the agricultural giant shake off the impact of a historic U.S. drought. Shares rose before the market opened as its results topped Wall Street estimates. ADM's U.S. soybean operations ran at record capacity during the quarter ended Dec. 31 amid firm export demand for soybean meal. Processors also stepped up crushing of soybeans because the drought-hit U.S. soybean harvest...

Farm accord: European Community agriculture ministers agreed Friday on measures to implement an oilseeds agreement with the United States and a series of other trade and aid measures after an all-night session. The oilseeds pact, related to a wider deal to cut farm subsidies that was reached more than a year ago, finishes up most of a global farm trade deal under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It restricts European plantings of sunflowers, rapeseed and...

* Q1 revenues up nearly 21 percent to $11.7 billion * Energy, agricultural profits down from a year ago CHICAGO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - CHS Inc, the largest U.S. farm and refining cooperative, said on Thursday its quarterly earnings fell 17 percent from a year ago, hurt by lower margins at its petroleum refineries in Montana and Kansas. The St. Paul, Minnesota-based food and energy company said net earnings were $343.7 million for the quarter ended Nov. 30, down...

Warning: Trade Representative Carla Hills said the United States will impose trade sanctions on European Community goods if a dispute over oilseeds isn`t resolved quickly. "I don`t want to do it . . . but we have to," Hills told reporters in Brussels. Though she declined to say when the U.S. might impose sanctions, she said the deadline for resolution of the dispute is "immediate. Indeed, it was yesterday." The U.S. has said it will place punitive tariffs on $1...

GATT trade warning: GATT chief Arthur Dunkel, winning a mandate for an urgent mission to Washington and Brussels, said Tuesday he aims to impress on the United States and the European Community that their squabble over oilseeds subsidies could torpedo the world's trading system. Dunkel's pledge came amid growing signs that the two commercial powers might be moving toward a compromise in the dispute that threatens to burst into a trans-Atlantic trade war.

It was close: The United States formally rescinded its threatened punitive tariff increases on $300 million of European food products. The action came after U.S. and European Community officials signed two documents in Brussels that set down in writing their crucial agreement on oilseeds and farm trade. The 200 percent increase in duties on EC white wine, wheat gluten and rapeseed oil, which was to take effect Saturday, was prompted by U.S. objections to subsidies paid to...

CHICAGO, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Co said quarterly earnings fell 31 percent due to weak ethanol and oilseed markets. ADM on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $399 million, or 60 cents a share, down from $578 million, or 86 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring costs and other adjustments, profit was 78 cents per share. Analysts' average forecast was 59 cents a share, according to...

CME Group Inc., seeking to expand the world's largest grain market, will allow electronic transactions of options at the Chicago Board of Trade at the same time as buying and selling occurs on the exchange floor. Electronic transactions for options on grain futures at the CBOT will be permitted for the first time from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on weekdays starting April 14, Chicago-based CME Group said Monday. Electronically traded options will continue to trade from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday...